Category: Biology of “Mental” Illness

Anxiety, Embodied: The Biology of “Mental” Illness

Anxiety is not a choice. It’s not a characterological weakness. It’s a kink in your biological software. Sadly, the mood-as-a-choice crowd has been growing in the last decade or two, making it worse. Now, not only do you stutter in a crowd, have difficulty making eye contact, or find your obsessive thoughts getting in the way of rational decision-making, but you understand these to be signs of failure on your part. The shame, then, of being incompetent, unfriendly and untrustworthy, stupid, and my favorite absurdity, “attention-seeking,” makes it almost impossible for you to simply work with your physical self to heal it, because even admitting your anxiety is embarrassing. Once you can get past your shame however, and simply allow yourself with guidance to gently, compassionately step into your anxious body, you have the power to bring flow to the log-jam of chronic anxiety. Continue Reading Anxiety, Embodied: The Biology of “Mental” Illness

“A Little Compassion Here”: Addiction as Illness

I was going to write about relationships this month, about the value of connection, with family, friends, lovers, and ultimately the world. It’s a subject that I cherish, and work with on a daily basis. And I will get to that… but first, I must address a subject that has come up recently in the… Continue Reading “A Little Compassion Here”: Addiction as Illness

The Mechanics of Will: the Neuroscience Behind Successful Resolutions

You know that gesture that, in moments of shock and overwhelm, we humans worldwide do to soothe ourselves? Hand to forehead! Try it now. Soothing, isn’t it? In so doing, we intuitively embrace and protect a vital part of our brain, one that governs among many, many things, our will itself. Oh, not the passion,… Continue Reading The Mechanics of Will: the Neuroscience Behind Successful Resolutions